rent-a-book?
 

Is it me? This so works for Netflix, but, uh, excuse me, how about the library folks?

BookSwim

For us lazy folk, I think it's an interesting idea.
I very well may plan to read a book someday and when I do, I'd like to get it through the mail.
:D

Could you imagine CP having to deliver door to door to compete with this service?
:D

Oh, bwahaha.

I love my books, I'm more apt to buy them, new, used, antiquarian (if I can get them).

CP could drive the bookmobile, though! Do they still have them?

I haven't had a chance to peruse the site at length, but if they had a selection on the order of Netflix, that would give them a big advantage over my local library, at least, and would make them something that might interest me.

Some places still have bookmobiles. They're usually a stopgap for cities that don't have enough money to build more branches. I've heard of high tech bookmobiles that are also computer learning centers/internet cafes - big ol' RVs filled with workstations.

Rental books have been around forever, just not widely used by consumers. You remember when all libraries seemed to be moving towards rental of current bestsellers? It's because libraries of almost any size rent extra copies of bestsellers from companies. No one wants to buy 10 copies of the new Sue Grafton because you really don't need that many in the long run, though you do need that many when it's red hot. Some libraries are now passing that cost onto the patron. (Ours gave up charging patrons.)

Even with 10 copies, we always have an extremely long holds list for the red hot new books. I just called a patron to tell them we finally got "A Thousand Splendid Suns" in for her, and she was ecstatic.

In short - this is a great idea for people who want the newest stuff right now, and don't want to pay a full purchase price.

I saw a bookmobile while traveling, I don't recall which city (Boston maybe).

I dunno, for me this concept does not work. It works for DVDs that I know I will never every buy. I enjoy books, obtaining books, reading and fondling books, and, ultimately dying under a fallen tower of books.

Not a bad idea, but the only reason I'm willing to deal with Netflix is because the envelopes are pretty standard sized and can fit in a normal mail box. With this I would have to deal with shipping boxes and go to the post office to mail a book back.

Too much hassle when I have a B&N across the street.

I don't know if they still do it, but when I was a kid the Fort Vancouver Regional Library System (severing Clark County, Washington) would mail books for free; also, there were no overdue fees and you didn't have to have a library card. It worked pretty well for them and I've never understood why more systems didn't go that way (when they went electronic in 1992 they did put library cards in place).

What they do need is AUDIO books. That would make for simpler shipping.

It must have been a huge library if they were able to sever an entire county :eek:

"Library System", I would presume that the system would include more than a single branch. I'd also imagine that the Clark County system covers fewer people than either, say, the Orange County library system, or even the LA City system.

Um... I was just making fun of a typo. I believe he typed "severing" instead of "serving"

Growing up our library served the whole county - Lassen County. Still does. They moved into a larger location but it's still not that big (it's the old Sprouse Ritz store).

Ha ha, Kevy meant to make a one liner joke, but mistakenly made conversation. ;)

Audio books are many CDs in length - anywhere from 5 to 25 CDs for something like the longest Harry Potters. Mailing those would not be as simple as Netflix. (That is, unless that was supposed to be a joke too :p )

Of course then it begs the question - why not have downloads? We tried a text e-book thing that was a complete flop. No one wants to read novels on computers. Audio downloads involve large servers and copyright protections, so I do not see most libraries indulging in such expenses and possible problems. Anyone that has worked in a government job can understand why a question about downloadable audio books gets a laugh and a head shake from our tech department.

As for delivery books via snail mail, I've heard of it, but I'd guess it is only implemented by very large, very wealthy libraries.

The Brea library does have downloadable audio books but it does not work with iTunes, iPod, or Macs so it gives me exactly squat which I'm not bitter at all about, don't think I am.

Nope; serious on the Audio CD's. I forgot that they could be so many disks.

The rent-a-book thing is dandy... if it's a best seller. Much like using Netflix, I can get a popular movie pretty quickly as opposed to camping outside Blockbuster on Tuesday morning and keeping it for one day. I'm really cheap... I'd rather just hang out on a waiting list for it. It's not worth $15 a month to get a book right away. Getting a book from a long standing hold IS like getting a present. It's unfortunate that I request tons of items and they all come in at once. *fie*

Kevy, Recorded Books Inc has a mail away system, but the rent fees depend on the book.

Our library has/had (you never know what we have because of our current management) the downloadable book option. It sucked. Primarily because people couldn't download it on iPods. If one didn't have an MP3 player, you could download it onto your computer and listen via RealPlayer or Windows Media Player.

If the e-book idea would be more popular if there was an inexpensive book-sized reader (are you listening Sony? Your proprietary software and $400 list price helped kill the idea before it even caught on!).

I'd pay for downloads, for sure.

While we're on the topic, here's something related - the Playaway.

It's basically a dedicated mp3 player with one book on it (no down- or uploading). Our local "competitor" has these for borrowing. The crazy huge snag is that they take AA batteries - and they chew through them. They had so many complaints about players dying mid-book that the library is actually replacing the batteries every time they're returned. Ouch, from both an economic and environmental standpoint. However, if the were rechargable like a normal player, they'd be more expensive (but not much, at this point. It was a problem 2 years ago, now it's just stupid).

That's only because they still use redbook audio. Where are all the MP3 audio books?

Oh yeah, you can only get those on bit torrent.

I wonder if they considered rechargable AAs. We use them all the time and have had good luck with them.

I love Sony's electric ink book reader. But it is just too expensive and too uncertain of future support for me to take the plunge.

Plus, not having bookmarking and annotating ability is weird.

The bookstore at the Albany airport has an interesting promotion. If you buy a book there, read it on your trip, and return it when you come back, they'll give you back 50% of the cost. Anyone else see that at airport bookstores?

Yes I've seen that in a number of airports.

I've not noticed in airports but have seen similar programs. The Cracker Barrel chain of restaurants do this, I believe (I know they do it for audio books). Several of the major truck stop chains also have such programs for audio books and DVDs (don't know about books though).

At first, I was thinking that you had to return your dinner when you get back, and that seemed, well... odd.

Sorry. For those who don't know, each Cracker Barrel restaurant has an attached "country store" that sells the usual road trip knickknackery. If you've been to Pea Soup Anderson's on a drive to Disneyland it is similar (though bigger) to what they have.

This would be a good deal for Ken. The guy reads 4-5 books at once, blasting through them in about a week.

This would also greatly cut down on the amount of books in our home, of which, we just moved about 40 18-gallon containers full of them. :rolleyes:

We don't donate them, because he likes to read them again and again.

How fair is that to the author whose royalty is based on the purchase price not the list?

It's not, but I am willing to bet that its using the same "theory" as gift certificates.
Poeple have to take that EXTRA step to get that money back, and I wonder i f the percentage of people that actually redeem, or return the book is less than 20%.
Meaning, they make more than the give away.

But then again, if I like an author, or KNOW an author, I'll buy the book at full price regardless because I see it as an incentive for them to keep writing.

Now... if said author never tells you who they heck they are, and you have to read every book in Barnes and Noble.... well, I might go broke that way.

We know who she is. She is 3894. Also known as Helen Johnson. You can find about the book she wrote with her husband here.

"Give a hoot! Read a book!" ~ Krusty the Clown

Okay, point for 3894, we do know who she is.
However, I also know that she has a more... prolific side, with another name.
That book I already own, it's in the ready to read pile. :p

But on the other hand is the 50% refund more incentive to actually purchase a book at the airport instead of passing on by the store? And since rebate participation is usually less than 20% or less, is much really lost? Is this any different than selling the book to a second hand bookstore who then re-sells it? Or donating it to a thrift store? What about selling it at a garage sale?

Interesting to think about. Not being an author I hadn't thought about it that way.

Book shmooks. Just wait for the movie version to come out on DVD...

:runs for the door:

:D

I read it. It is interesting and surprisingly will stay in my permanent keep collection (not because I am surprised they wrote an interesting book but because I only permanently keep books within a couple very narrow topical ranges and I was surprised to find that this book was in one of them).

GD and I made the jump to rechargables ourselves and I'm never going back. For a library that has constant check outs and returns though, dealing with rechargables would mean either investing in tons of rechargers or swapping them out of a few rechargers constantly, and both ways you've got huge time commitments involved.

My favorite reading spot is in the tubbie. Electronic books are not for me.

Our library is going into the Playaway business starting next year sometime. There was much debate on the rechargeable battery issue. It went back and forth. They finally decided on non-rechargeable. *shrug* But again.. thanks to my wishy-washy system, that could change in a heartbeat and then all of a sudden we have chargers in the inter-library shipment.

The idea of all those disposables ending up in landfills....yeech. I'd probably boycott the thing if they implemented it here.

Are they at least figuring out how to dispose of them properly?

Ugh... the stink I made didn't make a hill of beans to them. Their solution is to give us a box labeled "used batteries". Now, they didn't say where the full box was going to go... but then again, they don't think too much ahead.

If they'd only invest in iPod compatible audio books, there would be a lot more traffic and interest. I don't think there is a mass market service like Recorded Books that does that though.

I read on the john.
There, I said it.
My book of choice is the Bathroom Reader 19th edition...
But I hear you shouldn't read on the toilet. It gives you hemorrhoids.

If so, you're holding the book wrong.

I hear it has more to do with the length of time people sit on the john while they read...

Whenever I read "bookmobile", my brain instantly inserts "Gnomemobile" :)